Trellis.



JESSE J. WILLIAMS, OF UT'ICA, NEW YORK.

TRELLIS.

Application filed March 8. 1911.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 2, .1914.

Serial No. 613,021.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Jnssr: Janus VIL- Lmns, residing at Utica. in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Trellises, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates broadly to means for holding up plants, such as Carnations, which need to be supported, owing to the weight of the flowers, and also in order that a greater number of plants may be culti vated in a single bed.

Another object of the invention is to provide efiicient supporting means. adjustable for different sized plants.

Another object is to provide means which are readily assembled; it being only necessary to snap cross wires along main supporting wires.

Another object is to provide means to prevent the sagging or movement of the main wires toward each other, which would occur if the cross wires were provided with plain hooks. This result is obtained by means of the peculiar shape given the hooked ends of the cross wires by forming a reverse bend in the free end of the cross wires.

Another object is to arrange the parts of the device in such a way that the cross wires, while being adjustable on the main wires, will be held thereon in the position to which they are forcibly moved, this end being accomplished by placing the cross wires on the main wires under stress.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less broad than those stated above, will be in part obvious and in part specifically referred to in the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as a part of this specification; Figure 1 is a plan view of a frame including my invention; Fig. 2 is a detail looking in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1 at A; and Fig. 3 is a detailed section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the numerals on the drawings, I have shown as an example of a main supporting member, a frame composed of end pieces 1 and side pieces 2, forming a box-like structure, but without a cover. Stretched between the end pieces 1 over the top of the frame are main or strand wires which are secured at their ends to pins 4,

or the like. Preferably these wires 3 are under tension, for reasons which will here inafter be explained. Connecting the pair of wires 3 and slidable therealong are trans verse wires 5, which 'n'eferal'ily take the form shown, each end being provided with a hook U, the said hooks extending in opposite directions laterally from the body of the wire. \Vhen applied upon the strand wires the hooks (i are bent downwardly beneath the strand wires, as at- 7 in Figs. 2 and 3, and the torsion stress thus set up in the intermediate straight portion of the member 5 causes the hooks to grip firmly upon opposite sides of the strand wires, and to slightly crimp said strand wires as clearly shown, particularly in Fig. 2. This distortion of the strand wires gives an added grip for more effectually preventing accidental movement of the stay along the length of the strand wires. The end of the hook is bent upwardly again to or beyond the plane of the body portion of member 5.

The members 3 are preferably under tension, as already explained, and the members are of such length that when the hooks G of each cross wire are engaged with the strands 3 in the manner shown in Fig. 1, there will be considerable torsion stress exerted upon the member 5, so that the cross wire will be held in the position to which it has been slid along the strands though it may be moved upon the application of slight force. ()bviously by reason of the peculiar hooked ends of the cross members, any movement of strands 3 either toward or from each other is prevented, because the ends of the hooks (3 contact with the strand wires 3, and any slipping of the strand wires over the ends of the hooks is avoided because the cross wires 5 are under torsion and the ends of the hooks are forced above the wires 3. The cross members are readily assembled with the strands by snapping them into place, and are readily moved along the strands as may be desirable for the proper segregation and support of plants which may be within the frame, and have their upper portions projecting above the same.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and spe cific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention, which as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a device of the kind described, a frame, pair of strand wires supported on said frame, and a cross member having oppositely extending hooks at its ends engaging said strand wires under torsion, said hooked ends being provided with bent up portions engaging the strand wires and preventing movement thereof toward each other.

A device of the kind described, comprising a pair of strand wires under tension, and a stay wire having hooked ends engagingsaid strand wires in such manner as to induce torsion in the stay wire, for maintaining said hooked ends in engagement with said strand wires and for preventing accidental movement of said stay wire along the length of said strand wires.

3. A device of the kind described; comprising a pair of strand wires; and a stay wire connecting said strand wires, being formed with means adapted to grip said strand wires under torsional stress in said stay wire.

4. A. device of the kind describe-d; comprising interlocking members, one of said members comprising a substantially straight section of wire under torsion, said wire being formed with a hooked end portion embracing said other member and held thereto by the torsion stress in said wire.

5. A device of the kind described; comprising interlocking members, one of said members comprising a substantially straight section of wire under torsion, said wire being formed with a hooked end portion e1nbracing said other member and serving to crimp said other member under stress of said torsion whereby accidental relative movement between said members is more eflectually prevented.

6. A device of the kind described; comprising a pair of strand wires; a stay wire connecting said strand wires formed with means adapted to grip said strand wires under torsional stress in said stay wire, comprising hooked end portions, the hook at one end being turned in a direction opposite to the hook at the other end; said stay wire merging into said. hooked portions at both ends above said strand wires, and the free ends of said hooks being sprung downwardly to engage the under sides of said strand wires.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

JESSE J. WILLIAMS. lVitnesses C. BALLARD TAYLOR, ARTHUR J. FOLEY.

Quotes of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

